‘I could have been a Mo Farah’: trafficked boxer denied his shot at Olympic glory by Home Office

A prodigious talent with the drive and ambition to make it all the way to the top, when Kelvin Bilal Fawaz got the chance to represent Team GB as a boxer at the 2012 Olympics in London it was a dream come true.

Trafficked as a child from Nigeria to the UK and forced into domestic servitude, Fawaz had the opportunity for Olympic glory in the place he now called home.

Yet he was never given the chance to take his place on the global stage.

Instead, the Home Office refused to give him the work visa he needed for the prospect of a professional boxing career and he had to turn down the invitation from Team GB to take part in both the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.

Last week, Fawaz, along with millions of other fans across the country, watched as Sir Mo Farah, who achieved global stardom by winning two golds at the 2012 Olympics, before adding another pair in Rio in 2016, revealed that he too was trafficked into domestic servitude from Somalia as a child.

Farah also revealed his real name was Hussein Abdi Kahin and that he has been living under a false identity ever since. But while the British government has made it clear that Farah’s citizenship is not under threat, Fawaz said his own case showed the reality for most trafficking victims.

“Watching Mo Farah disclose his trafficking ordeal over the last week has brought up a lot of pain,” said Fawaz. “It is impossible not to compare our lives and wonder what could have been if I’d only been given the chances that were offered to him.”

Throughout his adult life, Fawaz has existed in a state of immigration limbo, denied the opportunity to work, twice detained in immigration detention centres and at risk of forced deportation to Nigeria, a country that has refused to accept his